


Tristis Est Tarn

by MagicalWordSmith



Series: The Everlasting Laugh [2]
Category: Suicide Squad (2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 06:25:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8317297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicalWordSmith/pseuds/MagicalWordSmith
Summary: Love and hate....two sides of the same coin or two coins of the same side? The opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference.When you're hurting love can feel like hate and hate like love... so.....what now?
*Sequel to 'Filia Patris Sui'*
Susie Q is gone and her parents will do whatever it takes to find her, but will it be before she drowns in normal?





	1. "With these two it’s not always laughter and cheeky punchlines but there is always a joke. You just have to look hard enough”

“This is bad” Frost said to Ken. He looked at the security camera footage and nodded.

It _was_ bad.

Although they couldn’t see a face they could distinctly make out the pattern on the baby blanket. Harley had drawn the pattern herself before finding someone to print it on the crisp pink sheet. It was covered in little diamond shapes and jester hats, with little ‘haha’s’ mixed in.

“Damn it” Rocco said over Ken’s shoulder when he saw the screen. “Yep, that’s her. I’m a dead man” He hung his head in defeat. “Maybe, maybe not. For now, let’s table this until after we talk to those two nurses.” Ken said memorizing their faces so he could scout the hospital for them.

“This is the first solid lead we’ve had. He’s gotta tell them. I was surprised I wasn’t dead already. Now with this I’m definitely a goner” Rocco said letting out an exasperated sigh.

He’d been here that night and his room was two doors down from the nursery. He guessed in their grief, the dead nanny was enough to pacify them but it had been a few weeks since the disappearance of their child. This new information would be the death of him. Someone had managed to sneak in that night and take their baby girl with him that close. The only thing that was keeping him alive was the assumption that it had been that morning when he was out with the boss. “The time on that tape is twelve thirty in the morning. We didn’t leave until seven to make the pick up. Harley called at ten. This one is on me.” This was one time Rocco was happy he had no family.  No one would miss him. “Take a walk. I’ll tell him and we’ll see what happens” Frost said, standing. He could tell Rocco wasn’t pleased with his solution, but that wasn’t his problem.

 *-*

It was late and the only light in the room was the moonlight coming through the window. The room felt like death personified. Harley sat in a corner rocking back and forth almost like she was in a trance. Every once in a while, she would giggle but the laughter would quickly die on her lips. Then the tears would start, she’d rock some more and the cycle would begin again. The Joker appeared just as miserable. He kept ripping up tissue paper and resembling it bit by bit piece by piece. Like a paper puzzle. He had carved smiles and ‘haha’s’ in to the walls and even the carpet. There was broken glass covering a large amount of the floor and the baby’s bassinet had been ripped to shreds.

Quietly Frost opened the door. Neither acknowledged his presence. He gently cleared his throat and two pairs of dead eyes looked at him intently. They had slowly dissolved to this state of insanity after Susie Q went missing. At first there had been a lot of anger. They had fought viciously with one another. Both were still sporting bruises and wounds that hadn’t healed yet. The Joker had eventually locked them both up here when the crying began and they hadn’t been out since.

That was a week ago.

Sometimes he would bring them food and check to be sure they were still alive. Bud and Lou laid at their door like guard dogs, daring anyone to enter. “We have a small lead I thought you’d want to know about” Frost said keeping his cool. He had _never_ seen them like this. It was an all new terrifying low. The eyes on him didn’t even blink. “She was taken to the hospital and dropped off with two nurses. Ken is working on Id’ing them now. “

“Who took her?” The Joker asked finally speaking. He sat still as a statue, he barely looked as if he was breathing. “We’re still working on it.” Frost said quietly. Harley burst into tears at his words and Joker stared at her as if she were a stranger. He looked completely lost and confused. The two hyenas pushed past Frost to comfort their ‘mommy’. One licked at her tears and the other laid across her lap. She didn’t even spare them a glance as she quieted and began rocking again.

Frost slowly backed out of the room and closed the door. He’d omitted revealing the time frame because in all his years he’d learned one thing from his boss; a man with nothing to lose fought the hardest. With Rocco thinking he was already a dead man, Frost knew he would throw him self in to searching for the baby.

Once he was gone, Harley crawled over to the Joker. At first he was hesitant as she crawled on his lap. Even though for the past week they had been locked in this room together, the only touch that had been shared between them had been hate-filled. She nuzzled under his neck like a cat seeking warmth. He didn’t wrap his arms around her, but he didn’t push her off either. They sat like that for awhile. A _long_ while.

He was not used to feeling this way. Love was inherently a foreign concept for him. He understood it to some extent. He knew how it worked. He’d used it as a weapon against others for years. He just wasn’t used to feeling anything akin to it until Harley entered his life. She was slowly, very slowly, reviving that part of him.

 He _hated_ her for it.

And now he hated that thing she called his daughter, but the only thing he wanted was to get her back. She was _his_ after all.

And no one _took_ what was _his_.

_No one._   


The fake smile he’d painted on his lips was slightly obscured by her uncoordinated fingers as Harley rubbed at his face. He had forcibly painted a matching one around hers as well, but her constant tears had quickly dissolved it.

His face was wet with quietly shed tears. Her voice broke as she spoke. “Puddin?” No response. “Mistah J?” she tried again.

 He abruptly stood, dumping her on the floor. “Get dressed, Pumpkin. We’re going out” he said over his shoulder as he determinedly strode to the bathroom to shower. “Oh goodie!” Harley squealed in delight.

Her joy was underscored by sadness, but right now she’d take all the joy she could get.  

This night was going to be one for the history books.


	2. “If you weren’t so crazy…I’d think you were insane”

“I just don’t get it. I mean we work for him, ya know, hoping we get enough bank to spilt and live good somewheres else. But she, I mean _they_ are just so fucked up. Sometimes I don’t know who’s _more_ fucked up. I’ve known Harley awhile, but I’ve known the boss longer. He’s a hard man to work for. I couldn’t imagine a relationship with him” Rocco said from the back seat of the black suburban. They were canvassing the hospital for one of the nurses Ken found was scheduled to work tonight.  Ken looked through the binoculars at the main entrance then quickly scanned the employee parking lot, silently listening to Rocco. Frost wasn’t much of a talker and he didn’t like to make friends with people he may have to put down, but it was a stake-out and he grappled with this himself in the beginning. “No doubt, they’re fucked up” he said reflectively, thinking back on all he’d seen and did since being a henchman for the notorious clown prince of Gotham city. “But in this crazy fucked up world we gotta grab our shot at a little happy normal anyway we can.” He opened his hand for the binoculars as Ken rubbed his tired eyes. “So you’re saying she’s his normal?” Frost nodded sagely “Let’s just say we are all searching for someone whose Demons play well with ours."

*-*

“Eww I still got brains in my hair” Harley said emerging from the bathroom after bathing for an hour to remove all the blood stains from her paper white skin “I’m sure that’s new for you” Joker said flippantly. “Hey!” she whined at the implication that she didn’t have a brain. For now, the two maniacal clowns were riding high off the endorphins and adrenalin from their midnight killing spree. Susie Q all but forgotten, for the time being. Joker sat on their purple bed like the prince he thought he was, reading the news about last night’s murders. This was sure to get the Dork Knight’s attention.  Now what masterly crafted rouse to follow it up with? Harley saw the faces of last night’s victims on the news report that was playing softly on the TV, and turned it up.

 **Reporter** : “Last night the city of Gotham was ravaged by the nightmare we thought long gone. The Joker and his ever-present former psychiatrist turned girlfriend Harley Quinn are rumored to be the key if not only suspects in 58 homicides that took place last night. With the death toll suddenly rising, many people are wondering, _Where is_ The Caped Crusader _?_

 At six we'll hear what the police chief and the commissioner have to say. Back to you Mark”

“Oh Puddin did u hear that! She called me your girlfriend!”  Harley said bouncing on the bed to the Joker’s side. “That’s nice pumpkin” he absent mindedly patted her head, while continuing to read. Every few seconds, he cut out a piece of the paper. The newspaper was starting to look like Swiss cheese. "Ya know, nobody reads newspapers anymore" she smirked. "Mmm" was his distracted retort.

“I just don’t get it” he said a few seconds later, throwing his hands up sending the strips of paper flying. “Don’t get what Puddin?” she asked confused deciding to brush out what ever was left of last night’s _fun_ in her hair.

“He knows I’m out. He must have heard about what I did to get _you_ out and yet nothing…Not even a peep. Even after last night when they waved that pathetic light looking for Bat brain, _still nothing._ The _least_ he could do is have the decency to be around when I’m not fucking detained!

 I mean look at all the trouble I went through last night.” He’d worked himself into a fit, slamming his fist down repeatedly on the bed. News clippings were everywhere. He went to work with his knife on a pillow. The sharp blade easily slicing through the fabric releasing feathers everywhere. _Looks like snow_ , Harley thought as the feathers, stirred around the room by his movements, began to land. She picked some up and tried to make a snow ball.  

“I don’t ask for much, just a little attention once and awhile, ya know?  for him to notice the amount of effort I put in to my work, my masterpieces. To get a few laughs. He _just doesn’t get it._ Doesn’t understand what I go through. What _genius_ this takes.” Then suddenly he turned as if remembering she existed.

“But you get it, don’t cha Harley?” he said crossing the room placing his hands on her shoulders. “I sure do Mistah J. And Susie Q will get it too.” She beamed at him proudly. “Right, Puddin?” she said with the uncertainty in her voice, mirrored in her face. His face stretched with his trademark smile as his hands tightened on her shoulders. He was bringing the knife to her throat just as someone knocked on the door. Frost cracked the door just enough to stick his head in.

“We have a lead on who took her”


	3. Chapter 3

"Oh, Butchie oh boy oh pal!!! Ken here tells me you took something that belongs to me!" They had found Butch holding up in a ratty hotel room in the neighboring state.

Like an idiot, he had thought this was far enough out of the joker’s reach. Joker picked up the fake passport Butch had bought to get him out of the country along with a one-way ticket to Russia. “Tommy Langford, well nice to meet you Tommy is Butch in?” Joker was speaking to the picture of butch in the passport. “I tell ya, ya look more like a Robert to me, maybe a George” Joker said pushing and pulling at Butch’s face animatedly. “Well soon you’ll look like stir fry so…meh” he said shrugging his blazer clad shoulders.

“Ya know Butch, you’ve been around a _long_ time. We’ve had a lot of fun together, but I think we’re losing our spice, our _je ne sais quoi_." Joker said in mock remorse hanging his head.

Suddenly he turned to Harley "Harley, dear, pass me the Carolina Reaper”

“Sure thing Mistah J” she said, bouncing over to hand him the angry looking bright red pepper. “You have surprised me butch. Ya know _who_ I am, what I do and _still_ …” he sighed “Where is she?” His voice was deadly quiet. “I-I-I don’t know. I just handed her to the nurses I-I-I didn’t s-s-stick around after that.” he stammered when Ken ripped the duct tape from his mouth off. “Mmhmm. You see this pepper Butch? It’s said to be so hot the juice from it can cause second degree burns. Now imagine what it can do after I’ve had a crack at it.” He cackled at his own wit, “Here, why don’t you taste test it to see if it’s any good” Joker shoved the pepper in to his mouth and slapped the duct tape over it, preventing Butch from spitting it out.  Tears were already streaming down Butch’s face from the heat of it. “Now chew” the Joker said and stepped back opening the umbrella in his hand. The chemical agent he had injected the pepper with was extremely volatile and Butch’s teeth clamping together was enough for a reaction.

His head exploded.

“Not brains in my hair _again_!” Harley complained. “Should have brought an umbrella, the weather report called for rain.” He said and strolled arrogantly from the shabby hotel, his small entourage of Ken and Harley tailing him.

*-*

Lighting flashed across the sky as the Joker and Harley Quinn sped down the interstate in their newly acquired lime green and purple 2017 Maserati Quattroporte. The cars hadn’t even hit the market yet but, he is the Joker after all. Harley laughed as she watched the other drivers scramble to get out of the way in time to avoid a collision. With the information they had gathered from the nurse Frost had tortu-questioned and offing the traitous Butch, Harley just knew her doll baby would be home soon. She knew Mistah J would make everything all better just like he always does. Suddenly the powerful luxury machine skid to a stop on the busy freeway, causing a small pile up.

Joker pressed a button and the opening cords to Ballerina by Belly flowed through the cars speakers. Joker got out and opened Harley’s car door.

“Dance for me, baby” he crooned just as the first verse began to play.

An excited giggle burst forth from Harley as she graceful exited the car with a cartwheel.

 


End file.
